Convert python datetime to timestamp in milliseconds
Question:
How do I convert a human-readable time such as 20.12.2016 09:38:42,76
to a Unix timestamp in milliseconds?
Answers:
In Python 3 this can be done in 2 steps:
- Convert timestring to
datetime
object
- Multiply the timestamp of the
datetime
object by 1000 to convert it to milliseconds.
For example like this:
from datetime import datetime
dt_obj = datetime.strptime('20.12.2016 09:38:42,76',
'%d.%m.%Y %H:%M:%S,%f')
millisec = dt_obj.timestamp() * 1000
print(millisec)
Output:
1482223122760.0
strptime
accepts your timestring and a format string as input. The timestring (first argument) specifies what you actually want to convert to a datetime
object. The format string (second argument) specifies the actual format of the string that you have passed.
Here is the explanation of the format specifiers from the official documentation:
%d
– Day of the month as a zero-padded decimal number.
%m
– Month as a zero-padded decimal number.
%Y
– Year with century as a decimal number
%H
– Hour (24-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number.
%M
– Minute as a zero-padded decimal number.
%S
– Second as a zero-padded decimal number.
%f
– Microsecond as a decimal number, zero-padded to 6 digits.
You need to parse your time format using strptime.
>>> import time
>>> from datetime import datetime
>>> ts, ms = '20.12.2016 09:38:42,76'.split(',')
>>> ts
'20.12.2016 09:38:42'
>>> ms
'76'
>>> dt = datetime.strptime(ts, '%d.%m.%Y %H:%M:%S')
>>> time.mktime(dt.timetuple())*1000 + int(ms)*10
1482223122760.0
For Python2.7
You can format it into seconds and then multiply by 1000 to convert to millisecond.
from datetime import datetime
d = datetime.strptime("20.12.2016 09:38:42,76", "%d.%m.%Y %H:%M:%S,%f").strftime('%s')
d_in_ms = int(d)*1000
print(d_in_ms)
print(datetime.fromtimestamp(float(d)))
Output:
1482206922000
2016-12-20 09:38:42
For Python2.7 – modifying MYGz’s answer to not strip milliseconds:
from datetime import datetime
d = datetime.strptime("20.12.2016 09:38:42,76", "%d.%m.%Y %H:%M:%S,%f").strftime('%s.%f')
d_in_ms = int(float(d)*1000)
print(d_in_ms)
print(datetime.fromtimestamp(float(d)))
Output:
1482248322760
2016-12-20 09:38:42.760000
For those who search for an answer without parsing and losing milliseconds,
given dt_obj
is a datetime:
python3 only, elegant
int(dt_obj.timestamp() * 1000)
both python2 and python3 compatible:
import time
int(time.mktime(dt_obj.utctimetuple()) * 1000 + dt_obj.microsecond / 1000)
A lot of these answers don’t preserve the milliseconds from the datetime. This works for me
def datetime_to_ms_epoch(dt):
microseconds = time.mktime(dt.timetuple()) * 1000000 + dt.microsecond
return int(round(microseconds / float(1000)))
Simple python 2.7 / 3 solution for converting python datetime to timestamp (as int) as title suggests. Use datetime.strptime to convert string to datetime object if your input is a string.
from datetime import datetime
dt_obj = datetime.utcnow() # input datetime object
milliseconds
int(float(dt_obj.strftime('%s.%f')) * 1e3)
1656096296215
microseconds
int(float(dt_obj.strftime('%s.%f')) * 1e6)
1656096296215242
How do I convert a human-readable time such as 20.12.2016 09:38:42,76
to a Unix timestamp in milliseconds?
In Python 3 this can be done in 2 steps:
- Convert timestring to
datetime
object - Multiply the timestamp of the
datetime
object by 1000 to convert it to milliseconds.
For example like this:
from datetime import datetime
dt_obj = datetime.strptime('20.12.2016 09:38:42,76',
'%d.%m.%Y %H:%M:%S,%f')
millisec = dt_obj.timestamp() * 1000
print(millisec)
Output:
1482223122760.0
strptime
accepts your timestring and a format string as input. The timestring (first argument) specifies what you actually want to convert to a datetime
object. The format string (second argument) specifies the actual format of the string that you have passed.
Here is the explanation of the format specifiers from the official documentation:
%d
– Day of the month as a zero-padded decimal number.%m
– Month as a zero-padded decimal number.%Y
– Year with century as a decimal number%H
– Hour (24-hour clock) as a zero-padded decimal number.%M
– Minute as a zero-padded decimal number.%S
– Second as a zero-padded decimal number.%f
– Microsecond as a decimal number, zero-padded to 6 digits.
You need to parse your time format using strptime.
>>> import time
>>> from datetime import datetime
>>> ts, ms = '20.12.2016 09:38:42,76'.split(',')
>>> ts
'20.12.2016 09:38:42'
>>> ms
'76'
>>> dt = datetime.strptime(ts, '%d.%m.%Y %H:%M:%S')
>>> time.mktime(dt.timetuple())*1000 + int(ms)*10
1482223122760.0
For Python2.7
You can format it into seconds and then multiply by 1000 to convert to millisecond.
from datetime import datetime
d = datetime.strptime("20.12.2016 09:38:42,76", "%d.%m.%Y %H:%M:%S,%f").strftime('%s')
d_in_ms = int(d)*1000
print(d_in_ms)
print(datetime.fromtimestamp(float(d)))
Output:
1482206922000
2016-12-20 09:38:42
For Python2.7 – modifying MYGz’s answer to not strip milliseconds:
from datetime import datetime
d = datetime.strptime("20.12.2016 09:38:42,76", "%d.%m.%Y %H:%M:%S,%f").strftime('%s.%f')
d_in_ms = int(float(d)*1000)
print(d_in_ms)
print(datetime.fromtimestamp(float(d)))
Output:
1482248322760
2016-12-20 09:38:42.760000
For those who search for an answer without parsing and losing milliseconds,
given dt_obj
is a datetime:
python3 only, elegant
int(dt_obj.timestamp() * 1000)
both python2 and python3 compatible:
import time
int(time.mktime(dt_obj.utctimetuple()) * 1000 + dt_obj.microsecond / 1000)
A lot of these answers don’t preserve the milliseconds from the datetime. This works for me
def datetime_to_ms_epoch(dt):
microseconds = time.mktime(dt.timetuple()) * 1000000 + dt.microsecond
return int(round(microseconds / float(1000)))
Simple python 2.7 / 3 solution for converting python datetime to timestamp (as int) as title suggests. Use datetime.strptime to convert string to datetime object if your input is a string.
from datetime import datetime
dt_obj = datetime.utcnow() # input datetime object
milliseconds
int(float(dt_obj.strftime('%s.%f')) * 1e3)
1656096296215
microseconds
int(float(dt_obj.strftime('%s.%f')) * 1e6)
1656096296215242